How do you get thirty-six 8-11yr olds excited about science in museums? Give them a ‘crime scene’ and skills to solve the crime.

Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to the North-West Passage has often been in the news ever since he left England on the 19th May, 1845 never to return. Successive searches throughout the 19th century eventually found artefacts and human remains. But it was not until 2014 the wreck of Franklin’s ship, HMS Erebus was found and two years later the wreck of HMS Terror. Now the extraordinary story of HMS Erebus is receiving new publicity thanks to the publication of Michael Palin’s new book – ‘Erebus : the story of a ship’. Whilst the earliest searches did not find any traces of Franklin and his crew, one of them, led by Captain Kellett did find a superb mammoth tusk, which is now part of the Sedgwick Museum’s Ice Age display.

The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, the oldest of the University of Cambridge museums, has appointed its first full-time director.

The world’s first life-size dinosaur models, including two gigantic Iguanodon, are in urgent need of conservation. The models were built over 160 years ago for the one of the World’s very first prehistoric theme parks, located at Sydenham, south London.

W.B.R. King was awarded the Military Cross for bravery with the British Expeditionary Force before being evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. He was a Cambridge graduate and World War I veteran who pioneered the use of geological expertise in the theatre of war. King went on to become the 11th Woodwardian professor of geology in 1944.

The recent discovery of Ice Age mammoth and rhino remains near Cambridge became national news. By coincidence, the Sedgwick Museum at the University of Cambridge has a new exhibit which tells the story of late Ice Age times and how the life and environments of Cambridgeshire were dramatically altered by climate change.

On the 26th of February, 1918 the hospital ship HMHS Glenart Castle left Newport, South Wales, heading for Brest in France. On board were 63 nurses, medical orderlies and officers, along with its crew and 99 wounded patients. One of the medical officers on board was the 49 year-old Captain Lewis Moysey RAMC, a graduate of Caius College and very keen amateur geologist who donated a substantial collection of Carboniferous fossils to the Sedgwick Museum.

On Sunday September 9^th Google’s banner headline in Australia (https://g.co/doodle/ytbdqa ) celebrated the 111^th birthday of a palaeontologist – the late  Dorothy Hill (1907-1997).

Historic fossils from Agostino Scilla’s collection within the Sedgwick Museum’s Woodwardian cabinets are currently on display in the Royal Society’s summer exhibition in London. Called ‘Science made Visible: Drawings, Prints, Objects’, the exhibit explores the questions of how and when science become visual; how drawings, diagrams and charts came to be used alongside words and objects; who made them and what made them scientific?

All the Museum and Department were very sad to hear of the death of former staff member Rod Long. Rod, Uncle Rod as he was affectionately known, was to many people the face of the Museum. Dave Norman, our long time Director, has kindly written his recollections of a man who, put simply, we all loved him for his friendly, helpful and kind nature.
Liz Harper

Celebrating 200 years since Adam Sedgwick (1775-1873) became the 7th Woodwardian Professor 21st May 1818.